


hidden intentions

by PlaguedQuillfeathers (PlagueBirbizzle)



Series: in the aether [3]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Angst, Broken Promises, Deity Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Deity GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Deity Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Dream Team SMP Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Dream hecked up and Sapnap is just realizing it, Gen, Post SMP Finale, no beta we die like wilbur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28979694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlagueBirbizzle/pseuds/PlaguedQuillfeathers
Summary: "Sapnap stares, unapologetically, for he knows the truth of Desire. He knows the effort. He understands the drive.Dream hasn’t lost the hunt just yet. "❤As the gods rejoice in the defeat of one of their own, a former ally knows better than to celebrate.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: in the aether [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103426
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	hidden intentions

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again! Nothing much to say, but thanks for reading! Let me know which characters I should take a shot at ;0  
> Once again, all referenced characters will be discussed in the end notes. I'm only tagging characters that appear in the proper story ^^  
> Enjoy!
> 
> Also, someone said I should put my socials in, so you can find me at @redwxngs on twitter or @plaguedquillfeathers on tumblr!

_Do you trust me?_

_Always._

They’ve always tried to be open with each other. He wishes it could still be as such, but the world around them has burned all that innocence into easily blown ash, crumbling what once was a strong structure of trust. 

It wasn’t only the community house that had burned that day, it seems.

He should have seen it coming, anticipating the endgame of what is obviously a hunt in itself, but he hadn’t, and now it scares him.

He’s been so blind. So naive.

And yet, at the same time, he isn’t.

Sapnap stares at the axe in his hand -- chipped, yet reliable -- and drowns out the voices around them. They are not important, not with the way their tones rise and dip with varying degrees of happiness, hands grasping another’s in victorious handshakes or exchanging friendly pats on the back. He can barely look towards the two with arguably the most energy, with Tommy still waving about a trident that isn’t rightfully his, a bloody axe beside him that still shines a little green along the edges, and Tubbo, just relieved to be alive.

Two young gods, triumphant. 

Two pieces of prey, having presumed to have caged the hunter.

Happy, but only temporarily.

After all they’ve been through, the god hopes they would have learned something. That, in a hunt for anything -- _for everything, really_ \-- they would know that following through was the most important thing to ever exist. Sure, there were exceptions, but only rarely.

Only rarely. 

_They have not learned anything, have they?_

_If not, then they will lose._

When Sapnap turns to the captured god -- shackled, chained and ready to be imprisoned -- he doesn’t see an exception.

It’d be absolutely impossible to see that, given their history.

Sapnap stares, unapologetically, for he knows the truth of Desire. He knows the effort. He understands the drive.

Dream hasn’t lost the hunt just yet. 

No, he sees an opening. 

_Oh, aether, is there an opening._

Dream smiles -- ever so slightly -- and the world starts to tick once more.

\--♥--

_They’ve always been a little intense._

_Before the world around them had been swept up in nations attracting wars, it had been a small amount of gods who had chosen to settle, slowly expanding their reach as they encountered the frantic mortals tied to villages and the vicious creatures of the night._

_He’d originally hadn’t been surprised when Desire himself expressed that, perhaps, it was time to plant some roots for once, to make a home among the universe, even if it were temporary for a god. Dream rarely expressed his thoughts aloud, usually relying on siphoning on the thoughts of others first to ensure he wasn’t projecting, so Sapnap listened keenly, intently._

_Dream was right; a place of their own felt like the right thing to do._

_Thus, as Dream slowly but surely contacted the gods across the aether, their community grew in time, forging what could have been the closest example to the aether’s first moments in existence. Creation at its purest, gently cradling what had yet to be the gods that carried its instructions, its blueprint._

_He’d loved it. Aether, how he’d loved it._

_And Dream had too, at a stage, so passionate about it succeeding that even Sapnap did a double take._

_The early days, of course, still held a special place in Sapnap’s heart._

_He remembers one day in particular, where the seasons were teetering on that pleasant summer heat and the forests loomed high above them. Sapnap had grown used to wasting the day away with his godly friends, with the three of them lying quietly among a field of flowers._

_As Luck would have it, given that George was actually present, the field had yet to catch alight from the embers radiating from Sapnap’s breath, yawn occasionally sending sparks past fanged teeth and fingertips tracing ash onto the floor beside him. When he stood up, he was sure that the humanoid burn print would be present, but that was all the destruction his passion would bring._

_Such was the God of Luck: presenting the unfathomable as reality._

_“Guys...Do you trust me?”_

_Their comfortable silence was broken after a few hours (or was it days?) of mutual companionship, causing both Sapnap and George to turn and face the masked god beside them. While most would be confused by the mask, unable to decipher intentions and emotions, Sapnap had grown used to the rise and fall of his voice, that precious tell among visual walls._

_He could hear it then -- a tell so open, it made him shiver. Dream rarely spoke like this, after all, so it was not wise for him to let this one slip out from under him._

_As a hunter, he was excited._

_As a friend, he was concerned._

_“Why wouldn’t we trust you?” George, however, beat him to the reply first, opting to lean on his arm and pull up his goggles. The sun had started to set, turning shades of black to a pleasant amber, but the reflective surface had been aimed away from them for the time being. Instead, he openly blinked with confusion, a frown forming._

_“I don’t know.” Dream sat up, sighing softly. “I truly don’t know.”_

_“Did you do something wrong?”_

_Sapnap caught the tell immediately -- the intention behind it -- and smiled; while Dream rarely showed his face, a select few knew just how much he enjoyed looking at others._

_For a god so bent on hiding themselves, he loved to see others. “Not yet...But I might, and I don’t want to hurt you.”_

_Such a love, however, made it easier to speak the truth. “Then don’t.”_

_Sapnap’s words were out before he could register them, causing the other two gods to turn and watch him. While George was easy to read, tells so out in the open that he was surprised words weren’t forming in a speech bubble above his head, Dream had cocked his head ever so slightly. Confused, yet intrigued._

_‘I’m listening’, he seemed to say. ‘I’m listening.’_

_So, Sapnap spoke, unapologetic. “Remember those hunts we used to do? Where you’d ask us to hunt you down, no matter the cost?”_

_Those had truly been the earliest of days in this land, before even the mortal villages knew who had decided to settle down among them, before the shrines and the worship that followed. It had been the three of them, usually, slowly finding amusement in the companionship of the others, but as the days moved on, their thoughts grew more violent._

_And yet, the violence was mutual -- consensual._

_Just three gods, hunting each other for sport._

_To scratch that destructive itch nobody else could reach._

_“We’d said that if any of us killed each other by accident, that it would be fine. That, if we followed through --_ **_if I lost myself and followed through_ ** _\--” The ground had started to smoke under him, little wisps rising into the air. “You’d pull out all my desire to win and still trust me not to hurt you, Dream, so I trust you. I always have.”_

_Always would._

_He’d always had an immense trust in the god. He’d never understood it at first, perhaps attributing it to the old god being absolutely willing to get his ass handed to him by the hunting god, but as time passed, it seemed to become clearer. It became easier to understand, to cling onto with a passion he tried to exhibit at all times._

_Dream was his friend._

_Of course he trusted Dream, because out of all the gods the trio could have befriended, he was one of the easiest to read._

_“I don’t think you can fuck it up that bad, Dream. We’re friends...All of us.”_

_The trio had gone silent once again, time passing around them as inner thoughts were dissected and reconstructed. George, seemingly having come to a conclusion first, only nodded in agreement; there were some loyalties so strong that words could not explain them._

_Sapnap understood. Oh, how he understood._

_Until, of course, he didn’t._

_Dream got to his feet, gloved hands reaching up to shift his mask back into place, but he didn’t utter a word just yet. He was thinking deeply; Sapnap could see the stiff posture as such, movements deliberate and far less natural than anything the god usually did -- but Dream still didn’t talk. No, the god merely looked into the distance, as if he would find the answers there, fists opening and closing and opening and--_

_Sapnap saw the sword materialize in his hand before it finished, tensing up for a fight almost immediately, but as he took notice of the gods casual stance and lack of a surprise attack, he merely got to his feet as well._

_Slowly, he went to stand by his friend, flame-filled gaze trying to see what the other was looking at, and failing nonetheless._

_Dream hadn’t taken his eyes off the horizon, breathing softly, but almost as if he was in pain. “One day, Sapnap, that trust is going to waver. I can feel it...Things are coming. Something’s coming. This world is going to get bigger and bigger and there’s no stopping it. There’s no running, there’s no hiding. We’re all going to rise, I swear. It’ll be glorious...All of us together. Happy.” His voice felt distant, scattered, somehow holding a hunger Sapnap cannot quite place, but he listened regardless._

_Oh, how he listened._

_“And yet there’s going to come a day when the world around us starts to crumble, where they try to tear us apart -- all of us apart. George, Sapnap…” His voice cracked, head bowing. “I’m afraid, but thank you for trusting me. I hope, in the end, it stays that way.”_

_The words felt wrong. Sapnap could not place it then, but they’d felt so wrong._

_However, like a false rustle in the trees, he barely registered it._

_He had no reason to, after all, for Dream trusted him._

_He trusted Dream._

_“There’s nothing that can tear us apart without me doing the same to them. Trust me.” Confidence mixing well with his protective streak, Sapnap found himself nodding once, creating that image in his mind. “They can try, but with us three? Hah, they’re not escaping.”_

_The mere thought that something would tear them apart had not quite edged itself into the realm of possibility, so he brushed it off._

_Nothing got between him and his friends, and if they tried…_

_Aether, help them._

_“Exactly!” George had gotten to his feet as well, nudging the taller god with an elbow. Dream, nudging back, didn't say a word as he continued.“We’ve got each other, as the aether intended. I mean, you have me, so that’s already enough luck to get you one win in a future fight, because we all know I’m the reason Dream can swing a sword.”_

_Dream laughed, “You’ll prove that over my dead body, George, but you have to catch me first.”_

_“That can be arranged.”_

_“Game on.”_

_And just like that, the heaviness from before vanished, leaving the world a little brighter despite words that were shared. It felt right. It felt comfortable._

_Sapnap should have noticed that, but he didn’t._

_For he laughed, mind already focused on the hunt, and let those fears fade away._

\--♥--

Now, deep within a base he never knew, beside a bucket with a friend he thought had died eons ago, Sapnap stares at the god he once believed to be his friend, broken and bleeding, yet suspiciously triumphant.

It makes his blood boil and skin warm, embers spilling out from the plates of his armour.

It makes his hand curl tightly around his weapon, as if any words uttered needed to be felled with one strong swing.

It makes him _angry_.

He feels betrayed.

They’ve always tried to be open with each other, so intertwined that nobody quite knows where one started and where one ended, but as he stares at the god he once considered his friend, the rage only mounts.

It rises, and it rises, leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

The God of Passion turns, shoulders hunched, and turns to a different horizon.

The God of Desire, silent, merely bows his head.

_We’re all going to rise, I swear. It’ll be glorious…All of us together. Happy._

_No matter the cost._

For the first time in eons, a tear burns along Sapnap’s skin. 

For the first time in a long time, the true intention is received.

**Author's Note:**

>   * **Sapnap:** _Self-Proclaimed God of the Hunt (and officially the God of Passion)_ \- Having harnessed flame like a well loved pet, his skills (and determination) surpass even the most angry of blazes. 
>   * **George:** _God of Luck_ \- Having avoided much conflict and stayed naïve to many things, it’s not a surprise that his presence among Dream seems to boost the God’s infallible air. 
>   * **Dream:** _God of Desires – of wishes, even dreams themselves_ \- [REDACTED INFORMATION] S̸o̸m̶e̵t̴h̸i̸n̵g̵ ̶i̸s̴ ̷w̶r̵o̵n̷g̷.̴.̶.̵V̵e̴r̴y̶ ̵W̵r̷o̴n̵g̸.̴ 
> 



End file.
